Q&A: Tetra Pak's Gavin Landeg

How much packaging does Tetra Pak put on the market in a year, and how much of this goes on to be recycled?

Globally, 188 billion Tetra Pak packages were sold in 2017. Today in the UK, beverage cartons are collected for recycling by more than 90% of local authority areas. In 2018 more than 67% of councils collected from households in kerbside recycling collections and 25% of areas are served by bring bank collections

Cartons collected for recycling in 35% of all local authority areas are sent to a dedicated car­ton recycling plant in the UK, opened near Halifax in 2013 and run by Sonoco Alcore.

The local authorities that do not recycle bev­erage cartons in the UK plant export to the global recycling market. The export of packag­ing to the global market is commonplace for all packaging, not just cartons.

But the UK carton recycling plant gives councils the environmentally advantageous option of being able to recycle cartons domes­tically. It is therefore Tetra Pak’s aim for all local authorities to collect cartons in household col­lections for recycling.

What is your approach to extended producer responsibility (EPR)?

Tetra Pak’s goal is to enable our packages to be transformed into resources as part of a circular economy. Establishing and improving recycling schemes is essential to this transformation.

“We serve as a matchmaker between collectors and recyclers, and help to expand market opportunities for recycled materials.”

We have been working for decades with gov­ernments, business partners and NGOs around the world to improve recycling for our packag­ing. Tetra Pak has been a committed partner in developing and implementing most of the EPR schemes for packaging waste today.

We strongly believe that EPR plays an important role in boosting recycling rates. We have established recycling solutions for bever­age cartons, serving as a matchmaker between collectors and recyclers, and helping to expand market opportunities for recycled materials. We also help to promote separate collections of recyclables and contribute to consumer aware­ness campaigns on the importance of recycling.

Tetra Pak’s main involvement in UK recycling infrastructure is through ACE UK and the dedicated carton recycling facility. How does it work with ACE, and in what other ways?

Through our membership of ACE, we have been instrumental in getting recycling in the UK off the ground. In October 2017, organisations from across the paper supply chain signed an agreement with ACE UK to establish paper cup recycling alongside carton packages at bring banks (which cover 25% of the UK). ACE UK will also work to include cups in kerbside collections.

The greater volumes of recycling material generated by this initiative will improve the beverage carton recycling stream, strengthen the business case for carton recycling and con­tribute to a sustainable recycling value chain in the UK. This initiative complements Tetra Pak’s existing activities while raising awareness of our work.

Bio-based and biodegradable packaging sounds good to the general public but often causes more problems than it solves. What are your thoughts on this ongoing debate?

In our beverage cartons that use bio-based plas­tics, the plastic has been made from ethanol produced from sugar cane. Currently we use bio-based plastics in our caps, closures, film and neck of packages. In fact, we were the first in the industry in 2011 to launch caps made from bio-based polymers.

Derived from sugar cane ethanol, currently sourced in Brazil, the molecules are the same, and they function exactly the same as fossil fuel-based plastic caps but have a significantly lower carbon footprint. Importantly, recyclabil­ity is not affected at all because the bio-based materials are processed together with conven­tional polymers without restrictions

None of the plastics used in our packages are biodegradable, for food protection and recy­cling reasons. Our plastic must withstand light, oxygen and water for long periods of time to preserve the filled product. If the degradation process starts before consumption, the filled product will be spoiled and go to waste. Biode­gradable plastics also have a negative impact on the plastics recycling stream.

Waste management in developing countries can be a huge problem. What should packaging producers’ role be internationally in helping to prevent the scale of dumping we see?

Recycling works when all the necessary factors are in place and well connected. A weak or miss­ing local link – such as a lack of efficient collec­tion systems, separate collection of packaging or waste management infrastructure – is a chal­lenge for the whole process.

Waste management varies market by market as each country has different waste composi­tion and sorting mechanisms, different legisla­tion and operates different waste and recycling infrastructures

As a major packaging producer, we support initiatives to drive major improvements in waste management and recycling infrastruc­ture worldwide, while simultaneously raising consumer awareness on the importance of recycling and the impact of littering.

We are currently driving local recycling initiatives in more than 70 countries. We are engaging and contributing with waste manage­ment companies, governments and other key stakeholders to shape effective collection schemes. For example, in China we develop best practices of sustainable used beverage carton collection models based on data from collection pilots and submit to government as policy reference. We had three of these projects ongoing in three major cities in 2017.

Since 2012, we have made investments in recycling infrastructure of €17m (£15m).

That was 2018 – the year when China’s ban on most waste material imports really showed how decisions in one country can affect those on the other side of the world, as the UK and others scrambled to find alternative capacity.

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